John Rebchook is a former Rocky Mountain News reporter with more than 30 years of experience in writing and communications... Henry Cisneros, the former HUD chief and now the head of a company that has been involved in the funding of $800 million in affordable, urban projects across the U.S. – including the Peloton in Boulder, is a strong proponent of extending the $8,000 federal tax credit for qualified first-time home buyers.
“And not just because it is helping my company,” said Cisneros, the head of Los Angles-based CiytView and who had been elected mayor of San Antonio four times.
“It’s good for the country,” Cisneros said, who was in Denver to attend a Urban Land Institute event, before visiting Peloton.
He said he know that the government did not extend another successful program, Cash for Clunkers.
“But housing is in somewhat of a unique position,” Cisneros said. “It accounts for something like 20 percent of the GDP. And the country has never pulled out of a recession, without a recovery in housing playing a very prominent role in the recovery. Housing is in a very fragile state right now. There are signs that it is starting to recover and stabilize. An extension of the tax credit, in whatever form it takes, is important part of the recovery.”
And although CityView targets affordable housing, he said he would like to see the jumbo mortgage market loosen up, too.
“In order to see a true recovery in housing, we need to see strength in all parts of the housing market,” he said.
Not complete without: “he resigned as Secretary in January 1997 while under a cloud of personal and political scandal”